Moments in Time: Agent Orange
The History Channel
On May 4, 1929, Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston, the daughter of an English banker and a Dutch baroness who for decades has been better known to her many film fans as the actress Audrey Hepburn, was born near Brussels, Belgium.
On May 5, 1809, Mary Kies became the first American woman to receive a patent, for her straw-and-silk weaving technique to create hats. The patent was signed by President James Madison.
On May 6, 1994, former Arkansas state clerk Paula Jones filed suit against President Bill Clinton in the federal court in Little Rock, Arkansas, asking for $700,000 in damages. The case was just one of four major scandals that combined to threaten Clinton's second term.
On May 7, 1984, seven chemical companies, including Dow and Monsanto, agreed to pay $180 million to thousands of Vietnam veterans who'd been exposed to the chemical herbicide Agent Orange during the war. Lawyers for both sides announced the surprise out-of-court settlement on the day jury selection was set to begin.
On May 8, 2010, "Golden Girl" Betty White became the oldest host of TV's "Saturday Night Live." She landed the job in part due to the hundreds of thousands of her fans signing on to a Facebook campaign rallying for the honor.
On May 9, 1970, President Richard Nixon made an impromptu visit to a group of anti-war protesters at the Lincoln Memorial -- an event that his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, dubbed "the weirdest day so far" of Nixon's presidency, going on to record in a diary entry, "I am concerned about his condition. ... He has had very little sleep for a long time and his judgment, temper and mood suffer badly as a result."
On May 10, 2002, former FBI agent Robert Hanssen, who intermittently sold state secrets to Russia over the course of two decades, received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for espionage. Hanssen apologized for his acts, describing himself as "shamed" by them and saying that he had "opened the door for calumny" against his innocent family.
(c) 2026 King Features Synd., Inc.